1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal printer, more particularly, to an improvement of a damper to apply a tension to a paper (thermal paper) sent to a thermal printhead.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a thermal printer, a paper (thermal paper) contained in a paper container is fed to a position of a thermal printhead and then a thermal printing is performed by the thermal printhead. When printing is performed, the paper is required to be appropriately stretched by applying an appropriate tension to the paper.
Therefore, the damper is provided on a paper feeding path between the paper container and the thermal printhead and the damper is pressed on a surface of the paper fed to the thermal printhead to apply an appropriate tension to the paper.
In a technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-052613, a main body is provided with a platen roller and the paper container and a cover element capable of being opened and closed relative to the main body is provided with the thermal printhead and the damper. When the cover element is closed, the damper is pressed on the paper disposed on the path from the paper container to the thermal printhead and the platen roller. Since the damper is separately disposed on the cover element, the damper is positioned separately from the paper container and the thermal printhead, and thereby, it is required to ensure a certain interval between the paper container and the thermal printhead.
Thus, it is not possible to reduce an entire length of the thermal printer in a front-back direction (paper feeding direction) where the paper container and the thermal printhead are arranged, so that it is difficult to achieve the small size apparatus.